24.v.22
871
3.144
Piccadilly bright
ekphrastic for George Hyde-Pownall’s undated ‘Piccadilly Circus’
in the Hinton Collection at NERAM
between the wars, I think
or during the first
early century, anyway
a proliferation of gaslight
what headgear takes up canvas!
teetering shapes of a crowd
must have thought the sky would fall
they are like soldiers
each to a direction ordered
long gone the famous collars
of Robert Baker
where was Portugal Street
here’s the modern world
headlamps pour into the rain
the smog
blitz, commandos yet to come
a famous anonymity
get away with you later
here is the circus moment in oils
almost a miniature now
as if the past were shrinking from us
no one’s stopping here
who knew?
not Eros, but Anteros
the angel of charity
as yet unmoved
that night grows ever further, less
the signage
is it Craven A?
Will’s Goldflake?
these aren’t yet crimes
it doesn’t matter
neither parliament nor palace
stairs of must be people drift
this is the heart of the empire
everyone on the way
you won’t make out a face
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